Pensioners and disabled tenants of Arena Housing's bungalows in Worsley Mesnes are angry that their landlords have "virtually abandoned" garden maintenance schedules this year

And that's despite them having to pay in advance for the privilege.
The lack of mowing has left "lawns" at the 16 homes in Snowden Avenue now standing more than two foot three inches high.

And this tangled jungle of grass and weeds - and the world of creepy crawlies it is harbouring - means many are now too scared to venture outside and take advantage of the wonderful warm weather.

Tenants spokesman Bill Blackledge says that tenants pay a supplement of £5.34 per week on top of their rents to have front and back lawns mown and hedges professionally trimmed.

By this time last year they had enjoyed four visits from Arena's gardening teams. But to date they have had just ONE.

And the wet spring, combined with the dramatic - "hotter than Barcelona" - sunshine, has created massive growth.

Now Mr Blackledge says that the tenants are considering asking for a rebate because they have been paying for a service they plainly haven't been getting.

Bill, who has received the Labour Party's highest honour from former Prime Minister Tony Blair for service to the community, said: "They call me the unofficial ombundsman for the elderly around here and a lot of the tenants have been coming to my door complaining to me about the gardens.

"I keep a diary so I know that although we are paying for the service every week as an element of the rent, we aren't getting what we are paying for.

"In fact we have had only a quarter of the visits from the gardening team we has last year.

"This has meant that the gardens have got completely out of control because the folk that live in these bungalows can't mow them themselves because of their age of their health.

"It's not right that these tenants can't do what everybody else is doing and sit outside and enjoy the fine weather.

"I have taken it up with Arena and they tell me that they have curtailed their contract with the garden maintenance team who have been doing the work because they weren't happy with what they were getting for their money and it wasn't being done as frequently as they would have liked. But that has now meant that is isn't being done at all.

"I must say that I can't understand why they haven't been able to sign up a new one because you would think that, in these times, gardening contractors would be queuing up to do the work."

Mr Blackledge said that one positive consequence of the complaint is that Arena have now pledged to re-instate the regular meetings that tenants enjoyed with their housing manager, which had fallen by the wayside.

And that should help to alleviate such problems happening again.
Next meeting will be on June 12 at 11am.

A spokesman for St Helens based Arena Housing Association said that they have received a number of emails and complaints and were taking steps to allay their tenant's disquiet.

She didn't want to discuss the reasons for the breakdown in scheduled maintenance but said that it was now being dealt with "at the highest level possible."

She said: "We can assure the tenants that they will be much happier very, very soon."